Verklempt Over The Crown's Closing

Betsy Marantz of Glastonbury, left, and Ellen Rosenberg of Simsbury collaborate on which meats each will take while shopping in at Crown Market in West Hartford on Wednesday afternoon.

Betsy Marantz of Glastonbury, left, and Ellen Rosenberg of Simsbury collaborate on which meats each will take while shopping in at Crown Market in West Hartford on Wednesday afternoon. (John Woike / Hartford Courant)

EditorialThe Hartford Courant

In 2012 the Jewish Historical Society of Greater Hartford held bus tours of the North End of Hartford, which had a thriving Jewish community in the mid-20th century. One of the historical sites the guide pointed out, along with Jewish cemeteries and former synagogue buildings, was the original 1939 site of The Crown Super Market on Albany Avenue.

That's how important it's been to the area's Jewish community. The Crown moved to West Hartford in the 1960s, following many of its customers, and served them flawlessly ever since. All were verklempt — filled with sadness — this week to learn that the market would be closing.

As with local bookstores and local pharmacies, local food markets struggle against the big chains. In announcing the closing, owner Marc Bokoff cited "significant increases in competition, cost of goods, and one of the worst winters on record in a decade."

The market is in the Bishop's Corner shopping area, which also includes a Wal-Mart's Neighborhood Market, Whole Foods and Big Y. The latter features an in-store kosher meat butcher and kosher deli department, in direct competition with the smaller Crown across the street.

In one of the most elegant business closing statements we can remember, Mr. Bokoff said: "I ask that in a reflection of our faith, that we not dwell on this short window of sadness, but on the generations of joy we all experienced from the food that this market has provided."

There's a last-ditch, long-shot effort under way to keep the market open. We hope it succeeds; if it doesn't, we implore Mr. Bokoff to leave the Crown tuna salad recipe with someone who can replicate it.

If the market goes ahead with plans to close, which seems likely at this point, it will join such bygone institutions as G. Fox, Arthur's Drug Store, Scoler's Restaurant, Huntington's Book Store and other great local businesses that took a little of us with them when they closed.